


A prize for a contender

by warboyziri



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Crushes, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, Hazel plays cupid?, Second-Hand Embarrassment, Set Up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28748106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warboyziri/pseuds/warboyziri
Summary: ‘my new romance-obsessed friend asked me who my last date was with and i was too embarrassed to say i’ve never been on a date so i blurted your name and it turns out they know you’ au
Relationships: Jason Grace & Piper McLean, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	A prize for a contender

Considering who her mother was, it should’ve been Piper badgering Hazel about her love life, and _not_ the other way around.

“Look, I’m all about that you are your own soulmate stuff, and all the power to the ace-aros of the world, but I saw you make eyes at the server at Dakota’s party, and we bonded over how badly we need KJ Apa’s body, and—”

“Wait—who the fuck is KJ Apa?”

“He’s the Australian guy playing Archie in _Riverdale_ , I told you about that show like a year ago.”

Annabeth thought for a moment. “All you’ve ever said about it is the unbalanced amount of hot people in it.”

“ _See_ ”, Hazel cried, gesturing to Annabeth as if she was a visual aid, “All I’m saying is that while it is completely okay for people to not crave the touch of another human being, _you_ are clearly not one of those people.”

“You’re just saying that because you love the idea of going on double dates with me.”

“I really do!” she said, and then quickly diverted as Annabeth looked up, “I mean—triple dates!”

“You’re fighting a losing battle here”, Annabeth said to Hazel, “Piper cannot be pushed into this – she gets too complexed about being Aphrodite’s daughter and says there’s too much pressure on her to outperform the rest of us and have the most mind-blowing dating life, as a result of which—she has none.”

Piper made an exasperated sound as she drank her whiskey. To Hazel’s pout, she replied, “You, are being ridiculous, and _you_ ”, she said to Annabeth, “are being a cunt.”

“But babe, you’d be such a _great girlfriend_ —”

“—I know that!”

“She knows that”, Annabeth added under her breath.

“Well? Then do something!” Hazel continued, “You’re too old to have never had a boyfriend.”

“I’m—this is—okay, first of all, that’s—I date, okay? I go out. I _literally went on a date yesterday_. So stop.”

This was not the first time a drunk Piper had gotten too flustered about her lack of dating and made something up. This was, however, the first time she’d done it to Hazel. Piper had _not_ been on a date yesterday—she had finished her book and texted Annabeth about it in all caps after she was done, something Annabeth clearly remembered as she looked pointedly at Piper.

But Hazel was new and had no reason to doubt her. “Really?” she asked, so genuine that Piper was in physical pain, “With whom?”

 _Good question_. “A guy I met in the punk bar Leo likes to go to”, she answered. Annabeth’s eyebrows went up an inch.

“What’s his name?”

“Uh—Jason Grace.”

Hazel, having been sipping her margarita, choked on it. In that moment, Piper had just finished gagging at her own self for naming the guy she’d been _stalking on Instagram_ this morning – how had she found him again? Maybe a friend of Nico’s?

“Oh my god— _Jason_?” Hazel cried, “I know him!”

Nope. Through Reyna. _Fuck_.

Annabeth held her laughter for the rest of the excruciating conversation, in which Hazel explained exactly how far back she goes with Jason, and then waxed poetic about all the good times they’re gonna have together, not before repeating again and again what a _screen worthy_ couple they made. She waited until Hazel was done fangirling and had gone to pee to turn to Piper, who had her face in her hands.

“He’s an ex-praetor, you know.”

“I know.”

“Percy said he’s kind of a goody-goody.”

“He looked it on his Instagram.”

“Almost _unbearably_ preppy blonde. And _I’m_ saying that.”

Piper wrenched her head from her hands to glare at her. “I’m sitting here, trying to think of ways to not seem like a complete jackass when Hazel finds out the truth, and you’re trying to—what? Turn me off of Jason Grace? You’re doing the _inverse_ of helping!”

She was grinning. Piper threw a coaster at her. “Why did you even say you’d been on a date with him?”

“I just. Wanted. To shut. Her. Up.”

“She didn’t mean to annoy you. ”

“I know.”

“You could’ve just admitted you’d never been on a date—”

“—you know I’m a lesser person than that.”

“And _Jason Grace_ —”

“—I didn’t know he was such a celebrity, okay?” Piper cried, “Reyna tagged him in a throwback thing and I was just—this morning, I was just looking through his photos. I had no idea he was fucking Troy Bolton of New Rome—”

“—Piper—”

“—I mean, sue me, the guy is hot, and I just couldn’t think of anyone else—”

“—hey, Piper—”

“—not as if people don’t _panic_ in situations like these—”

“ _Piper_ ”, Annabeth grabbed her leg and jostled her into silence. She jerked her chin behind her, worriedly, “Jason Grace is _here_.”

So—okay. It’s not like there weren’t things happening to her diaphragm when she turned around to look at Jason Grace walking along the bar. It’s not like the lights didn’t just dim and the room didn’t slow a little bit as her eyes settled on him. It’s not like all of that didn’t happen.

But the glory of the moment couldn’t survive the inevitable humiliation that waited for Piper when she would get caught having lied about going out with Jason Grace, to Jason Grace’s face.

“Fuck my entire life”, she said, slowly and loudly. Annabeth got up. “Where the fuck are you going? I’m about to shit my pants over here!” she cried.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “I’m going to the bathroom to stall Hazel”, she said, “so you can go over to Jason, convince him to go along with your dumb lie, and not look like an idiot in front of _two_ roman centurions tonight. I know Hazel’s sweet, but I’m not. I _will_ disintegrate with second-hand embarrassment. Now fuck off to him.”

Piper was not an inherently smart or brave demigod. All that she was supposed to have inherited from her mother were her looks and her optimism. But in that moment, she understood that Annabeth’s plan was her only choice and that she was going to have to muster the courage to do it. There was no liveable alternative.

“Look at it this way”, Annabeth continued, “If he does this for you, we can safely say that he is non-boring, bend-the-rules enough for you to date. Which you want to. Bad.”

And with that, Piper, got up, walked towards Jason Grace’s tall, jacket clad back, and tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned. She ‘hey-ed’. Confused, he ‘hey-ed’ back.

“I’m Piper”, she said, “Piper Mclean.”

“Jason Grace”, he replied, still confused but in a good way.

“I know”, she said, then flushed at her stupidity, “I mean, we have some common friends. Hazel Levesque?”

At that, he brightened. “Yeah, we go way back!”

"I'm actually here with her", she said, and held up a distracting hand as he craned his neck to look for her, " _which_ , is why I'm talking to you, actually."

He tilted his head to assess her sanity, probably, and Piper decided to take the plunge. She nudged him out to the foyer, where the music was muted. "This is going to sound a little unhinged."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from a greek friend of Hazel's."

"I—" she narrowed her eyes at his grinning face, "we're going to address that later, but anyway, so Hazel and I just became friends, and she was getting on me a little about dating and stuff. I don't know if this is a thing she does to everyone—"

"—it is", he cut in to reply.

"—yes, so, fearing a blind set up in my future, I told her I went on a date yesterday to satisfy her..."

"...okay..."

"...and when she asked me who it was with...I sort of—I gave her your name."

Jason froze, flushed, and arched his eyebrows at her. Piper lost her breath a little, and couldn't rush to explain why and how like she had planned. She just stared back, waiting for him to run away.

He didn't.

"You...told her we went on a date yesterday", he said after a while, slowly.

"I'm sorry", Piper said sheepishly.

"Why? Was it a bad date?"

Piper, after a beat spent in utter disbelief, smiled. "Um...we went to an open mic night for comics and caught a late show of the new _Star Wars_ movie?"

Red, but amused. Shy, but mischievous. Jason Grace gave her a look that saved her entire life. "Sounds like a great date to me”, he said, “You even agreed to watch my favourite franchise and let me nerd out."

"Well, you sat through two hours of unfunny stand-up so I could wolf-whistle when my friend came on, so it was the least that I could do."

"I hope we didn't get fro-yo later—I hate that stuff." Piper made an offended noise, to which Jason promptly said, "We’ll address that later?"

Piper didn't know if she wanted to puke or cry or faint. "I—okay", she said, in a faint voice, "but basically—yes. I am an idiot and I was hoping you would save me some trauma and go along."

Wordlessly, Jason waved an arm back inside, another out to get her in. Piper stepped into it, his arm around her back, her purse-gripping hand grazing his chest, and gods be good, she would not have stopped staring at his face if her phone hadn’t vibrated in her hand.

ANNABETH

>>We heading back out. I hope u good.

Hazel was ready to pass out with glee when she saw them.

There were moments, between her comparing them to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and her planning a road trip with greeks and her asking Annabeth how she couldn’t _possibly_ be dying from fangirling right now “because _oh my god,_ this is the greek roman pairing we’ve been waiting for”, where Jason caught Piper’s eye.and half-smiled.

And Piper has never had a crush before—she’s never been the type to obsess—but she thanked the gods that Hazel was too excited to let anyone else speak because Piper needed time to sort of leave her body, stand in a corner and scream about those half-smiles, then come back like nothing was wrong.

Except something _was_ wrong, and it was that Jason Grace looked like he might want to do something later.

Piper _knew_ she should’ve joined Tinder. At least then she would know what the fuck to do next. “Okay, I’m done”, Hazel said, and gulped down the dregs of her margarita.

“Done drinking? Done fangirling?” Piper asked.

“Done squealing? Done planning triple dates till the turn of the next century?” Jason added.

“Oh god, let it be all of them”, Annabeth groaned.

“All of you suck”, Hazel said, not annoyed in the least, “but yes, Annabeth. We can go home now. I will sleep it off and be a more civil fangirl tomorrow”, she picked up her jacket and retreated back to being coy for a second, “But _you_ can come back with Jason later if you want, Pipes. I’m sure he’ll drop you home.”

Jason Grace may have agreed to lie to his friend but he was still a gentleman, which meant that he had to _immediately_ agree, volunteer to drop her later, and get away with asking her out without asking her out, per se.

The ball, as they say, was in Piper’s court.


End file.
